On Thursday, Republican Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback made his move in a closely watched state-based healthcare policy battle, vetoing legislation that would have expanded Medicaid eligibility in another GOP-controlled state.
“I am vetoing this expansion of Obamacare because it fails to serve the truly vulnerable before the able-bodied, lacks work requirements to help able-bodied Kansans escape poverty and burdens the state budget with unrestrainable entitlement costs,” Brownback wrote in a statement (PDF).
Brownback also tweeted that Medicaid expansion could be costly for the state:
The cost of expanding Medicaid is irresponsible and unsustainable. Estimates say it will cost KS taxpayers $1.2 billion in coming yrs #ksleg
— Sam Brownback (@govsambrownback) March 30, 2017
While the veto was expected, just getting the bill to the governor’s desk in conservative Kansas was a major accomplishment. The effort was buoyed by Democrats in the legislature as well as moderate Republicans voted into office amid blowback about Brownback’s tax policies, the Wall Street Journal notes.
State Sen. Barbara Bollier, a Republican, also told the publication that nearly every healthcare provider in the state submitted written testimony supporting Medicaid expansion.
Indeed, the Kansas Hospital Association said in a statement (PDF) that it is disappointed in Brownback’s veto. Since that Congress has signaled that states will continue to have an opportunity to expand their Medicaid programs in the foreseeable future, the veto “keeps Kansas on the wrong side of this equation, placing us at both an economic and competitive disadvantage,” it said.
Both the state’s legislative bodies would need a two-thirds majority to override Brownback’s veto, and the House currently is three votes shy while the Senate is two votes shy of the numbers they would need, according to the Kansas City Star.
The Medicaid expansion debate in Kansas comes as other states have also begun exploring their options related to the program after Republicans in Congress failed to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. North Carolina, Maine and Virginia are all aiming for expansion, while states like Wisconsin are seeking more conservative-leaning policy changes.